


Lamp Black Eyes

by voleuse



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-31
Updated: 2007-08-31
Packaged: 2017-10-04 03:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>Instruments of mercy are foreign to their hands</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lamp Black Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-series. Title and summary adapted from Jeffrey Foucault's "Wild Waste and Welter."

Sometimes it was difficult for Jo to remember her dad. His laugh came to her easily, and maybe, sometimes, the glint of his smile. She could, when she tried, remember the calluses on his hands when she reached for him, and the way his thumb curled around her wrist.

His face, though, faded whenever she tried to capture it, like a piece of a song on the radio, slipping away when she mouthed the lyrics. She couldn't remember much of him at all.

The weight of his gun in her hands—that was what she had of him. When she pulled the trigger, the recoil was like a caress in her memory. Behind her, to the right, her mom's voice issued encouragement and caution. Her mom's hands reached out, corrected her stance at shoulder and elbow.

The poltergeist's features, distorted as it flickered across the room—that was what she had of her dad. In the back of the room, Bobby stood ready with his shotgun, and Mr. Morales read from a worn book, the words as familiar as bedtime stories to Jo's ears. Her mom chanted at her, _Steady, steady, aim and try again_.

The recoil, the embrace.

The taste of salt and smoke in the air—that was what Jo had of her dad. Maybe it was enough.

And Mr. Morales swore, and Bobby fired, because she hadn't missed on her second shot, but the poltergeist needed a third.

And afterwards, her mom grasped her shoulder and told her she'd done good, and they both ignored the way Jo shivered.


End file.
